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April 10, 2026
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"Insurgency and peace are relational concepts. There were five key relationships of Mizoram to the federal government of India involved in the MNF insurgency and the eventual peace. First, there was weak Mizo involvement and identification with the dominant religions and languages of India, together with almost no participation in the politics of pre-British India, British India, or the Congress led Independence movement. Second, in independent India, major Mizo leaders and many of their followers came to see themselves as a nation that was not being treated well by the government of India and launched insurgency activities for complete independence. Third, the military conflict would have ended if either the government of India or the insurgents had won a decisive victory at any point. Neither outcome happened, so the mutually hurting stalemate ensued. Fourth, the government of India made an innovative offer for Mizoram to have a form of extreme asymmetrical federalism with large guarantees of cultural autonomy. Fifth, civil society and political society in Mizoram, led by a united armed underground leader, was sufficiently united to be able to arrive at a self-binding acceptance of the offer; normal state-nation politics rapidly ensued, and peace has endured."
"In 1958, Pu Laldenga, secretary of the erstwhile Mizo Cultural Society, in several of his public speeches repeatedly stated, “Mizoram is for Mizos only”."
Young though he was, his radiant energy produced such an impression of absolute reliability that Hedgewar made him the first sarkaryavah, or general secretary, of the RSS.
- Gopal Mukund Huddar
Largely because of the influence of communists in London, Huddar's conversion into an enthusiastic supporter of the fight against fascism was quick and smooth. The ease with which he crossed from one worldview to another betrays the fact that he had not properly understood the world he had grown in.
Huddar would have been 101 now had he been alive. But then centenaries are not celebrated only to register how old so and so would have been and when. They are usually celebrated to explore how much poorer our lives are without them. Maharashtrian public life is poorer without him. It is poorer for not having made the effort to recall an extraordinary life.
I regret I was not there to listen to Balaji Huddar's speech [...] No matter how many times you listen to him, his speeches are so delightful that you feel like listening to them again and again.
By the time he came out of Franco's prison, Huddar had relinquished many of his old ideas. He displayed a worldview completely different from that of the RSS, even though he continued to remain deferential to Hedgewar and maintained a personal relationship with him.